- Investor tricked via LinkedIn job interview scam loses ETH, SOL, and Azuki NFTs in wallet breach.
- Crypto phishing scams surged in April, with total losses topping $364 million, CertiK reports.
- Binance and white hats helped recover over $18M in April through coordinated recovery efforts.
A crypto investor lost a significant amount of digital assets after falling for a sophisticated phishing scam disguised as a LinkedIn job interview. While applying for jobs on LinkedIn, the victim was approached with a fake job offer by a ‘recruiter’ claiming to represent a top Web3 company. What began as a standard job application process quickly turned into a costly mistake.
After some standard back-and-forth, the recruiter sent a link for a test interview. Pressed by the countdown timer and misled by technical prompts, the victim unknowingly enabled permissions that exposed their browser wallet.
The result was a full compromise. The attacker drained the investor’s Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL), and several high-value NFTs, including collectibles from the Azuki and BEANZ series.
Social Engineering Tactics Now Target Wallet Permissions
Unlike traditional hacking methods, attackers are increasingly exploiting trust through social engineering. In this case, it wasn’t malware or brute force that enabled the theft—it was carefully crafted interaction.
This LinkedIn scam shows the importance of separating job-hunting from financial activity. Changpeng Zhao, former CEO of Binance, has warned users to use a separate device for wallet activity to avoid granting risky permissions or installing unsafe apps.
April Sees $364M in Crypto Scams: A 1,163% Spike
The job interview scam is just one of many attacks that plagued April. According to CertiK, in April alone, losses from scams, hacks, and exploits surged to $364 million, up 1,163% from March’s $28.8 million.
A single event was responsible for most of the damage: an elderly American investor was swindled out of 3,520 Bitcoin, worth over $330 million. However, even excluding that case, April still saw a 21% rise in malicious activity over the previous month.
Related: Major Crypto News’ X Account Breached to Manipulate $TRUMP Token Price
White Hats Recover Over $18 Million
Despite the surge in attacks, white hat hackers and security teams managed to recover $18.2 million in stolen funds. One major recovery involved KiloEx, a decentralized exchange exploited through oracle price manipulation. Binance’s security team and others quickly responded, tracking the attacker and recovering 90% of the stolen $7.5 million.
Related: Check Your Copy-Paste: Kaspersky Details Crypto Clipboard Hijacker
ZKsync and Loopscale also successfully negotiated partial recoveries with attackers who accepted 10% white-hat bounties.
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